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Suspect in Holly Bobo murder had DUI

A third person being investigated in connection to the Holly Bobo case has a criminal record in Murfreesboro, including a DUI and a charge of walking down a major street with a shotgun, according to police documents.

MURFREESBORO — A third person being investigated in connection to the Holly Bobo case has a criminal record in Murfreesboro, including a DUI and a charge of walking down a major street with a shotgun, according to police documents.

Shayne Austin, 29, identified as suspect by a prosecutor in an email, may be indicted alongside Jason Wayne Autry and Zachary Adams, who have both been charged with first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping in the Bobo case.

Bobo, a nursing student, disappeared after she was seen being led away from her West Tennessee home by a man in Darden in April 2011.

Austin previously had been granted immunity in exchange for his cooperation in the investigation, but investigators told The Jackson Sun Austin was not completely truthful and forthcoming.

He was arrested twice in three months in Rutherford County, according to records from the Murfreesboro Police Department.

On Nov. 20, 2009, Austin was pulled over on Middle Tennessee Boulevard in front of the Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University, according to an arrest report. On video footage taken from a dashboard camera mounted in the patrol car, Austin can be seen stumbling and nearly toppling multiple times during a field sobriety test.

Austin was charged with the third DUI on his record and with violating state implied-consent laws, as he refused to submit to a blood test when he was booked, according to the arrest report.

On Jan. 4, 2010, a police officer saw Austin walking across a gas station parking lot wielding a shotgun, according to another arrest report.

The gas station, which was a Mapco at the time, was on Middle Tennessee Boulevard just down the road from where he was previously arrested. When the officer approached Austin, according to the report, Austin placed the Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun on the ground.

Austin was arrested for possessing a weapon with intent to go armed, according to the arrest report.

State law says that "it is an offense for any person to possess or carry, whether openly or concealed, with the intent to go armed, any (prohibited) weapon" in public. Exceptions are made for people who carry a handgun with the appropriate permit.

Austin's criminal record in Decatur County includes 10 charges against him, all misdemeanors, according to The Jackson Sun.

Christopher Merchant can be contacted at cmerchant@dnj.com and 615-278-5109. Follow him on Twitter @c_merchant.